Bahrain Invites Indian Fintech Firms To Set Up Base

March 27, 2019

There are few fields which have seen as much a meteoric rise as fintech in recent years. There have been a lot of startups coming up around the world which work in the integration of technology to payments, and many of these are based out of India. In fact, India has more than 2,000 startups currently work in India, which represents a huge growth in the last five years alone. In 2014, this sum stood at around 700 – it has grown almost three-fold in the past 5 years.

Bahrain is looking to make a mark on the fintech sector as well and is constantly striving to establish itself as the fintech hub of the Middle East. In a bid to diversify from the traditional oil-based economy of Middle Eastern countries, Bahrain has been promoting and enticing many companies in the fintech sector to set up base in the nation. The Bahrain government is currently providing a lot of opportunities for the Indian firms to start their entry into various financial sector techs, like crypto assets, robot advisory, and blockchain.

The financial sector is actually extremely important to the government of Bahrain. The financial sector is actually the second biggest contributor to the Bahrain government, after the traditional oil and gas sector. The government has actually built up a capable support system in order to help the fintech startups thrive, and supports great innovation and growth in the sector.

There are many advantages that a fintech company gets when they shift to Bahrain. Apart from the strong support that the government provides companies, there are plenty of other perks – this includes a low cost of doing business, a large number of accelerators and many incubators too. This means that many companies have tried to get into this amazing ecosystem, including a large number of tech startups in India.

A sandbox actually offers a great opportunity for startups to push the limits of innovation in a safe space. Startups in Bahrain have actually started rolling out new products to the customers, in the testing phase – many of them have been gaining some great positive recognition too.

The investment promotion arm of the Bahrain government called the EDB has even signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Maharashtra Government, in order to integrate the startups from the state into the markets in Bahrain. The formation of the Bahrain Fintech Bay, which is a private-public partnership platform, has played a huge role in attracting fintech startups too. It has worked to provide a physical space for fintech startups, and Bahrain is slowly shifting towards its bid for diversification. Around 42% of the fintech startups in the nation currently are based out of two cities – Bangalore and Mumbai. These two cities are actively targeted by the Bahrain government, and many fintech startups in the nation today are either entering the Bahrain markets with